


SIDE: Rose

by BottledUpWishes



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-03-08 22:57:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3226607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BottledUpWishes/pseuds/BottledUpWishes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A prequel to Neko's life as a 'cat'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sky

A humid July day left the woman distracted and inattentive to the tiny, pale hand holding hers.  

 _It’s so humid, even for July,_ she thought.

"Mama?"

_We haven’t had rain in a while, either.  I hope this isn’t a drought._

Lost in her thoughts the mother glanced up to the pale, cloudless blue sky.

_"Mama?"_

The woman began to slow down.   _Hopefully the garden will manage.  At least just a little longer._

"Mama!"

With a jolt, the mother looked down and met clear, bright eyes, filled to the brim with childish impatience.  Her gaze softening, the mother smiled and tilted her head.  ”What’s the matter, dear?”

Her daughter stopped walking completely and pointed to a red and yellow cart, where a cheerful, middle-aged man handed out cups of brightly coloured, flavoured ice to children close to the girl’s own age.

Her mother nodded and pat her daughters head.  ”What flavour do you want?”

"Lime."  The girl looked over at a young, black-haired girl holding a cup full of bright green ice.  Soon, she was tugging her mother along to the cart.

Together, they waited in line, the girl looking past the two others in front of them.  The ones in the front must have been having a particularly difficult time trying to decide what flavour they wanted, given how long this wait was taking.  To top it off, the vendor wasn’t even looking at them.

_Odd, they seem a bit out of it._

Now, even the people directly in front of the mother and her daughter looked off.

A unnatural silence glossed over what should been the cheery voices of people ordering flavoured ice on a hot summer’s day.

By the time the mother thought, _’something’s wrong’_ , murmurs broke through.  Anxious, aggravated murmurs that dotted area and increased in volume and confusion rapidly.

Slowly, the mother followed crowd’s stare, and met a milky, pale -almost puce - red sky.  Illuminating it, a bulky, rust-red sword that just floated in the air, completely still.

"Mama?"  The daughter tugged urgently at her mother’s sleeve.  Her face was a mix of confusion and worry "Mama?"

Her mother opened her mouth to say something to the child, but she stopped in the middle of the girl’s name, and watched that rusted, broken up sword floating in the sky

fall. 


	2. Moments

_"I’ll become a cat!"_

Naturally, the declaration was easier said than done.  Yet, to ???, it was necessary.  She was a cat, a noble, independent creature that could take of herself.

She wasn’t sure how long it’d been since she left that lonely veranda and the couple - her sense of time had been distorted. During the first few days, ??? struggled with just adjusting to this life of a stray.  But, now, she had to put her mind to looking the  _part_  of a stray.  She would close her eyes, and try her best to do so with Tamagorou as a reference.  When she imagined the tomcat’s form, she saw his black fur, his gold eyes…

Yet, she couldn’t understand his shape.  The proportions and lengths.  Consequently, she ended up frustrated and desolate.  Her, a creature capable of taking en entire family’s memory of their deceased son away from them for herself, unable to do something as elementary as portraying herself as a cat.

Tears threatened to overcome her, and she hugged herself, knees tight against her small frame.  Her clothes were dirty and tattered, and her shoes were long disposed of, run down by dozens of holes.  In the wake of autumn, she felt the chill wind, the scrapes of leaves falling onto her, gritty dirt, and cold rain.

Of course, the sight of a pitiful, lonely child elicited the concerns of people.  One such person approached ???, and used their umbrella to cover her from the rain.  Yet, soon, they ended up staring at an empty spot on the street, confused over what they were doing in the first place.

Bluntly put, ??? put one skill she deemed very important: concealing her presence from others.  She never wanted to inadvertently do something to harm another person.  She’d fend and help for herself.

After retreating, ??? arrived at the one place she considered decent and stable enough to reside in.  It was secluded, a ways off from most human activity.  An old, abandoned, wooden entertainment centre.  The doors to the bottom opened to an empty space - likely for videos - that ??? just barely fit in.  In it, she curled herself up.  No longer able to withstand the feeling of her clothes clinging to her body, she was down to nothing.  In an attempt to further block out the cold, she concentrated once more on changing into a cat.

After what seemed like an eternity of brutal concentration, er eyes slowly opened, and she saw messy, pink fur. She lifted herself up, slowly, only to thump her head on the wood above her sooner than she anticipated.

Did she do it?

It was vexing – the balance between moving as a cat while her body was that of a child’s.

But. Nonetheless.

She was a cat. She became a cat.

Cats knew where warm places were, they had their goals determined, and they could fend for themselves right down to hunting for food.

_Ah._

Hunting.

Cats animals like birds, mice, and fish, right? Could ??? manage that? Was she fast enough? Nimble enough? Sneaky enough? Was her eyesight decent enough for nighttime? Her hearing? Could she even _do_ that to another living creature? ???, young as she was, only knew that food like chicken and seafood wasn’t moving or breathing, but she had only a vague understanding of how that was carried out. How it was those animals were killed.

_I’ll just get stuff from stores!_??? thought. It’d be easier and less work, and, ultimately, it meant warmer, better meals.

??? was a cat. When people saw her, they would no longer see a lonely child hugging herself on the street. She’d be the cat calmly going about her day. It’d be “Look a the cat!” instead of “Look at that poor girl…”

She was a cat.

_She was a cat._


	3. In the Evening

So much time passed since then. Neko's hair grew longer, now ending just shy of her lower back, and she grew a good deal taller, which made her better at jumping and running.

Although, jumping when need be became somewhat of a pain due to the fact that, at some points, it felt like her chest would make her topple over.

It really was just a major pain.

Currently, she rested on some smooth tree stump in a children's playground. It was loud, with several children running around to and from swings, slides, and jungle gyms. Naturally, children would congregate to a small cat resting on their own, but Neko made sure to make it so no one noticed her. The noise made it so she wasn't stuck in silence, so, to her, the setting was peaceful.

Of course, some kids would get uncomfortably close to her and nearly crush her by sitting on the stump, but Neko would manage to move before then and conjure a simple enough illusion to scare them, like large bugs crawling on their lap. One such child was a tiny girl with braided, black hair. She would go through a bout of running with the other kids, but soon lose her energy and retreat to the stump to sit down and catch her breath. During those intervals, Neko would rest her back against the tree stump and wait for her to leave.

As time went on, however, Neko noticed that the black-haired girl's breaks became longer and more frequent. Along with that, she started to pout and sulk, her short arms crossed over her chest.

To Neko, it was an all too familiar position. Because of that, her impatience for the intervals lessened. She wasn't okay with them, no, but she had no reason to scare off this girl like she had the others.

It wasn't until the fourth or fifth time, however, that Neko really caught on to what was going on.

Apparently, some of the other children, presumably a bit older than the black-haired girl, had been teasing her for needing to take so many breaks. As a result, of course, that girl would withdrawal to the tree stump Neko attempted to lounge on.

It bothered Neko. Less for the reason that they were the cause she couldn't simply fall asleep on that stump herself (granted, it contributed greatly to her annoyances in its own way), and more that that child clearly hadn't done anything to deserve that treatment.

At one point, she got fed up with it, and allowed herself to be visible to only hiss and claw at the group of children, complete with her fur bristling. Had it not been for the concerned parents of these children (who they clearly didn't know how to raise), those children seemed prepared to just throw pebbles at her.

It somehow didn't surprise Neko when the black-haired girl wasn't at all fazed by her threatening stance. Instead, she eyed Neko with wide, dark brown eyes. After years of avoiding others, Neko at least understood that, often, kids were the least of her worries, and rather than bother her, they would sneak her free food. This child was no exception, and from her dress pocket, pulled out a scrunched up, plastic bag with bits of bread in it.

Neko tilted her head before moving in to sniff at the bread in the girl's hand, and made no protest when she began scratching her ears.

Before she noticed, Neko ended up following the child when her parents called her over to go home. Of course, she stayed 'invisible' to all of them. Usually people willing to feed strays will do it more than once, if given the chance, a chance Neko didn't want to lose. When possible, she liked being able to avoid having to deal with being sneaky enough to steal food from vendors and stores, and this was one of those opportunities.

It wasn't until after the child's parents went inside their house that Neko revealed herself, meowing loudly enough to get her attention.

Miya turned to face Neko, and an excited smile crossed her face. She greeted the cat, pat her head. As if it was only natural, she asked Neko if she came back for more food. Neko, of course, mewed in confirmation.

Miya nodded, and told the cat to wait outside before she ran into her house. After Neko had made herself comfortable under a rose bush, Miya returned, a slice of what smelt like ham in her hand.

Ω

Days, or rather nights, went on like that for several days. Neko would slip into the family's backyard every night, expertly hidden in the rosebush – with the scrapes from the thorns to prove it. Soon, Miya would come outside with leftovers, usually soup noodles, for Neko to eat. Sometimes, Miya would stick around long enough to play with Neko for a bit, but never long before her parents called her back inside. One some of those nights, Neko would just fall asleep under the rosebush.

Of course, today, that routine changed.

On her way to Miya's, Neko attempted to take a shortcut, but it ended with her in the neighbour's backyard. This neighbour, from what Neko knew, was an old woman that Neko nicknamed 'Onibaba' with a large, temperamental dog. Which, the latter was barking loudly at her, held back only by the chain to his doghouse. That, however, wasn't what made Neko run away. It was the impact of a broom hitting her on her leg, followed by that old lady screeching at her to go away.

Neko made her way over the fence, and rushed into the rosebush. She fussed with her leg for a minute in hopes that the throbbing would lessen.

She paused when she heard pounding, and, sticking her head out from the bush slowly, she saw 'Onibaba' at Miya's doorstep. That old woman, with her broom in hand, had a voice like sandpaper.

When the door opened, a tall woman appeared.

“You keep that mangy fur ball of yours  _out_  of my yard!” ' ' Snapped.

The other woman, who could only be Miya's mother, furrowed her eyebrow. A cat? Her family didn't have a cat. In fact, her daughter was  _allergic_ to animals with fur.

'Onibaba'' huffed, and pointed her bony finger directly at the rosebush. “Don't play dumb with me. I see your girl playin' with some cat e'ry night or so near that bush.”

Miya's mother, unwavering, shakes her head. “Ma'am, my daughter's allergic to animals like cats. I would know if she were messing around with one.”

“Then call 'er down,” ' ' demanded. She tried to peek into the house. “Go on. Ask 'er yourself.”

The mother bites her lip before turning away from 'Onibaba'. “Miya? Come here for a minute.”

Soon, Miya appeared. Unlike usual, her hair had no braid, so one could see just how curly it really was. “What is it, Mum?”

Her mother gave a warm smile. “Miya, our neighbour here says you've been playing with an animal. A cat.” Her voice was gentle, like a content sigh. Naturally, she expected no truth in ' ''s accusation.

Similarly, Neko depended on the child to keep their secret.

Miya's dark brown eyes widened, and she looked away, and clutched to her mother's shirt.

“Miya?”

At the change in atmosphere, Neko stiffened.

Miya glanced at the rosebush, and biting her lip, said, “Well, there's a c--”

_Fwoosh._

That rosebush, with a cat with a bruise forming on her leg, bustled and interrupted Miya's confession. Neko had gone away. Away from the small, dashed hope that a little girl wouldn't easily expose as easily as those men from long ago did.

“You see that!” 'Onibaba''s voice scraped the air. “That nasty little thing upset my dog earlier!”

Neko kept running, fiercely ignoring the dull throb of her leg and the sting of scrapes from the rosebush.

How was  _she_  supposed to know the girl was allergic? Or that that old woman disliked cats that much? Moreover, why didn't she just use her abilities to gloss over her overall existence to Miya? Why did  _set herself up_  for disappointment?

She didn't understand at all.

Fine. Whatever.

Plenty of other places would give her food anyway.

Ω

By the second afternoon of completely avoiding that place, Neko felt... off. As if that routine had been something she missed.

Maybe it would go away if she at least tried to see at least the house once more, and then she'd be over it just like that. Even if she was going in the middle of broad daylight.

With that hope in mind, Neko went off.

Ω

No lawn ornaments. No car in their driveway. Nothing.

Neko first stayed in the rosebush, fiercely ignoring the barks of 'Onibaba''s dog, to the point where she fell asleep.

She had no way of knowing that the family, concerned for Miya's health, decided that a life on the countryside would be better than living where she  _might_ have been playing with a cat, not to mention next door to a lonely, old woman and her old, sick dog, with hardly any money to spend and the stress leading to anger.

By the third day, Neko hoped that this was just a vacation the family decided to partake in. Her stomach growled incessantly, and she resorted to sitting on the doorstep, occasionally scratching the door.

Come the fourth morning, it sank in. She woke to the clear sound of a bicycle's bell. A boy, wearing a hat the concealed his hair and holding a sandwich in one hand, stared at her with amber eyes. He rested his elbows on the bike's handlebars and appeared to be waiting for someone or something.

“They moved,” he said absently. After looking around, he sighed and made a face, muttering about how he was stuck with just this isolated, small cat as conversation. He bit into his sandwich only to scrunch his nose up. When he looked back at Neko, he tossed it in her direction. Now, disassembled and messy on the ground.

“It's smoked ham.  _I_ think it's gross, but cats like meat in general, yeah?”

Neko stared at the sandwich a few feet away from her, but made no move towards it.

“Why are you throwing your food? And talking to a cat?”

Another boy appeared, about the same age as the hat-adorned one.

“You took too long and I got bored,” he said.

Their conversation drifted away from Neko, and, soon, they biked away without ever looking back at her.

She was, once more, how she began.

Alone.


	4. Shed Light

As years and seasons changed, as did Neko’s whereabouts. She kept to Shizume, but the stores she stole food from and the places she sought shelter in constantly drifted and changed. She saw empty houses she rested in be taken away from her as people moved in, and restaurants she once frequented go out of business and close down.

For now, Neko remained on the premises of a high school. Her first thought was that it was pretty, with a huge school building and plenty of forest to roam in. for a vast amount of the day, she explored about with hardly any trouble aside from the rare student here and there noticing her and needing to get away from them.

The only  _major_  issue she could find with it were the cleaning bots. With their faulty programming and random phrases, one always tried to throw  _her_ away when  _they_  were the things that belonged in the trash.

Now was no exception. She’d snuck into the school’s cafeteria, where she could smell some type of curry. In there, she hid behind a counter with pots scattered on it in a disorganised mess. She watched the chef, a temperamental man, with eager scrutiny.

He eventually left for something or another, and Neko made her move. She took to a plate of curry and rice, and indulged in the warm meal to her heart’s content. By the time she finished, her face was covered in curry and rice bits. Naturally, she could take care of this herself by licking her face clean.

Something else caught her attention, however. Some fish set out to be washed, all there ready to be ate.

She couldn’t be expected to ignore them. It was against her nature. She trotted over and picked a fish up with her mouth.

She was completely ready to dig in until she heard a grunt followed by yelling. There was the chef, armed with a pan, shouting at her to get. He even had the audacity to start calling her a ‘mangy stray’.

Don’t blame her that she could take better care of herself than most of the students here depending on some old grump to feed them.

Of course, she ran into that stupid cleaning bot  _just_  as she got away. It managed to startle her and she gave out a yowl, back arched and fur bristled up.

“ _You hillbilly samurai!”_

Neko hissed and swiped her paw at it, but the first time she banged against it and only hurt her hand, she promptly decided it safer to run from it. Eventually, she reached a shed, the doors cracked enough for her to squeeze in. there was a large mat in it that seemed comfortable enough to rest on.

A welcome calm from the chaos from two minutes ago. She curled up on top of the mat after making sure the doors were shut, and attempted to close her eyes for a well deserved rest.

Ω

What woke Neko up wasn’t her own will, or even her stomach growling. No, what woke her up was the sound of yelling and excited voices. She lifted her head up and tilted it to one side, and slowly got up to see what was going on.

She discovered, somewhat to her discontent to being disturbed, that it was just one of the students yelling out some confession to one of the girls below. Incidentally, she was the girl Neko was near to get a better view of what was going on.

Just like that, the boy was rejected by her. Following his own dejection a colourful array of fireworks were sent off.

Yawning, Neko scratched her ear and left. She’d hoped someone would have dropped or something over the fiasco, but to no avail. That said and done, she decided to return to her shed and go back to sleep.

She made sure the doors were closed once more, prepared to hop back onto the mat.

In that moment, she was thankful something woke her up and got her away from the mat, and that she hadn’t gotten back sooner.

She heard the crack and thuds first, and saw wood from the ceiling tumble down onto the floor and mat.

But, more pressingly, the person that slammed right onto the mat and scared her clean out of her fur.

Neko yowled and hissed at the unwanted, white-haired intruder. Not only did her scare her to death, he left a hole in an otherwise perfect resting spot! She yowled with all her strength, ready to go toe to toe with him.

But he just… sat there, gawking at her with wide, amber eyes. He scratched his head with a troubled expression.

“I must’ve scared you… sorry.”

His voice was light and airy, but somewhat warm, or, at least, sincere. It might’ve been the first vaguely comforting sound Neko could recall in a long, long time. To top it off, he smiled lightly at her, as if to say he wasn’t a threat. It was rare to find someone who bothered lying to animals, so Neko allowed herself to relax, almost flustered by his sincerity.

Putting her trust in him, Neko got up the nerve to approach and further inspect him, and, when he extended his hand out to her, reached out to her, she accepted it. Now, she sat in his lap, ever so aware of how gently he stroked her head. She could feel his warmth next to hers. It was different, very much so, from the sort of warmth she felt eating a warm meal, and while both types left her warm in her stomach, this one spread all over.

With this stranger that – like an angel - fell from the sky, Neko accepted that warmth and security.

Yet, just as she was drifting off, the shed’s doors swung open, and the girl from earlier appeared, succeeding in startling both Neko and the boy.

She muttered about hearing something, likely the crash, and gave a short yell when she noticed the boy.

“You… who are you?!?”


	5. A Decision

Yashiro Isana. For short, Shiro.

The boy Neko attached herself to, who had a gentle touch and bright smile. He never opposed to her staying with him, comfortably holding onto his shoulder and accompanying him to class. He didn’t even mind letting Neko eat portions of his lunch in spite of not having any income for decent school lunches. Mostly, he resorted to mooching off of other students. Whom, with Neko’s ‘aid’, tended to agree to let him eat some of their own food.

Yashiro Isana. The boy who didn’t know any name other than the one _Neko_ gave him. Back in the shed, it was only meant to give him an answer to avoid trouble, but the illusion soon got out of hand. Now, he was a student of Ashinaka High School. Certainly well-liked despite his airy aura, and, consequently, the one Neko latched onto for both of their sakes.

She felt bad, and  _scared._ She  _could not_ go too far from him, or the illusion would waver, and he’d be confused, lost, and, if he found out it was her, she’d lose him  _and_  her new home.

It was selfish. Terribly selfish and self-centred. Without any excuse, she was responsible for his well-being, the same thing she jeopardised. Without a better way put it, she was the ‘director’ of his life. Half-heartedly writing his script and otherwise depending on him to ad-lib to the best of his ability.

_Awful, I’m awful._

Even when they both lived a comfortable life, that anxiety always returned.

Yet, she felt responsible for him. To her, hat meant doing her best to make him happy,  _without_  her power. A sincere, real happiness.

It wouldn’t fix what she’d done, no, but, for this boy who embraced and cared for her, to try and make up for her tricks, she’d protect him.

Without a doubt.


	6. Smile

Little more than a week passed.

It was a rough first few days. First, Shiro didn’t even have this school’s uniform, and ended up receiving a student’s extra set. Of course, he also had an abundant lack of school supplies. To top it off, the first time he left the building to help with a festival the school was having soon, he couldn’t get back in. he had no PDA as a pass.

“Man, Shiro, it’s luck with you everyday.” Sota Mishina, the same student who lent the uniform, now handed his own PDA to Shiro so he could enter. “You know how to set it up and get in, yeah?”

With an unsure smile, Shiro fiddled with the PDA, before shrugging. “Well, I might have forgot?”

With an exasperated sigh, Mishina took the PDA, pressing this and that. “There, I set ya as a guess.”

Shiro, of course, thanked him, and he and Neko went back to his dorm, their home.

Carelessly, Shiro tossed his bag onto the floor, and, with a loud sigh, said, “I wonder how I lost all that junk.” He sat on the bed, back against the wall.

Neko rested next to him, a smile on her face when he began scratching her head. Soon, the motion slowed to stroking her head and down her back.

Loudly, Neko mewed in protest when abruptly stopped.

Shiro laughed lightly. “Sorry, I still have homework to do.” He reached for his bag, pulling out a blue textbook and red journal. With a critical, almost serious look, he stared at the two, and ultimately picked up the journal.

“Guess I’ll start with lit.”

From what Neko understood, ‘lit’, the class with a bunch of words and reading, wasn’t Shiro’s best class.

He wasn’t, by any means, bad at it, but when it came down to reading, he’d complain about some of the words, or what he sometimes called just ‘symbols’, mashing together, or just seeing completely foreign to him. Because of that, it was a time-consuming task, and he often read over things carefully.

His expression was far off, fully engrossed in his work, yet at peace. Regardless of any complaints, Shiro really did enjoy learning and applying information available to him. Today, Neko could tell he was especially into his studies thanks to the humming of some tune he often did hum. After a few minutes had passed, Neko shifted closer to him as a way to support him. Absently, he pet her head.

After he finished ‘lit’, he dove right into maths and science homework. Somehow, mathematics, sciences, those were subjects that came ‘naturally’ to Shiro. He flew through them. Of course, he had to flip through pages and learn the material for the first time in his life, but he had a knack for catching on quickly and getting straight to work.

Today, the studious silence left Neko feeling sleepy.

“You’re being extra lazy today, aren’t you?” Shiro remarked.

Neko only bumped her head against his hand.

Shiro had set his work aside, looking to the kitchen. “Well, we can’t sleep on empty stomachs.”

At that, Neko perked up. She followed him into the kitchen, hopped onto the counter, and pawed at a package of bread.

“So sandwiches today?”

It was a quickly prepared meal, but, nonetheless, it left Neko satisfied and full. By now, she just nibbled at crust. Not her favourite part of the meal, but still not something she disliked eating.

“Taste good?” Shiro asked.

Neko nodded her head with an agreeable meow, and her approval increased when her felt his heat scratch her head once more. The only thing that stopped any further meowing was a wide yawn of hers, and she lowered her head, intent on sleeping.

Shiro continued to pet her, slowly dozing off himself.

Before her eyes closed, Neko caught herself staring at his expression, peaceful and relaxed.

The expression she wanted to protect, and never wanted to lose sight of.

Not ever.


	7. Shiro

After she grew so accustomed to the comfort of a bed, the bench Neko slept on was far from comfortable. It was hard, hold, and lonely. As if that wasn’t enough, the chilly temperatures of mid-February forced to keep the yellow dress of hers on for some source of warmth.

Almost two months ago, she and Kuroh went their separate ways, on a mission to find Shiro.

Yashiro Isana, the First and Silver King.

Yashiro Isana, the King in a body not his own.

Shiro, the boy who risked his life for people prepared to kill him.

 _Neko’s Shiro,_ who gave her a home, affection foreign to her for so many years, and completely embraced her for all she was, and yet the same one who disappeared, without a trace, neglecting so much of a goodbye for her.

But he was definitely  _here, somewhere._ Neko could feel it. That warm, bright Aura of his in her was as full as it’d been when she’d became his first Clansman, the first Clansman of the First King.

She’d find him, surely. When she did, she’d brag to Kuroh about being right about which direction to go in. Most likely, Kuroh would give Shiro the lecture of a lifetime for disappearing, and, as if nothing had changed, Neko would be prepared to defend her Shiro.

Her home with those two would return.

Surely.


End file.
